Matches Burn Twice
by Biotomegami Lyanvis
Summary: Naruto thinks he understands the circle of life. All he really understands is the circle of death. Matches burn twice- that is an answer he knows well. Sometimes more than twice. Challengefic. UPDATED
1. Bitten

_**Matches Burn Twice**_

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto, Konohamaru, Hana or the woman who beats up on naruto, or Umino Iruka. They are all property of Masashi kishimoto.

* * *

Hana laid her head on the table, ignoring her younger brother as he babbled away enthusiastically about his day at school. Her eyes were on another table, one where one Umino Iruka was treating a young blonde boy to a meal. Hana had not taken her eyes off them since the younger boy had ordered his meal, and Kiba finally noticed her disinterest.

"Hey, sis, you could at least pretend you're interested…" Hana turned her brown eyes towards him slowly.

"That boy over there…" she murmured to him softly, "he's ordered a dog meat dish." Kiba's head whirled around to look, immediately incensed, before the spark fizzled out with a small pop. Uzumaki Naruto. The blonde was one of his classmates, and he was not well known for his intelligence.

"Hana-chan… I doubt he knew what was in it." Hana shook her head.

"Even children must learn things sometime."

Naruto stared at the abundance of forks, knives, and other miscellaneous utensils around his plate and glared slightly.

"Why are there so many of them, sensei?" He asked irritably, and Iruka sighed through his nose, trying to avoid touching his hand to his face in any way, even to his temple, conveniently forgetting that… well… he himself had asked the very same question when he was learning this lesson. Come hell or high water, he would not show how exasperating Naruto could be in such a public place.

"Each fork is for a different purpose, Naruto. It's a question of hygiene." Naruto scowled slightly.

"So why do I need to learn this?" Iruka failed to remember asking this question as well, but he did have more patience, for he understood the sentiment as well. "Why can't I just use chopsticks?" Iruka paused, then smiled and sat back.

"Well, let's just say that you were to get a very important A-ranked infiltration mission, and part of the mission required you to eat in a restaurant like this with your intended target." Iruka smiled at Naruto. "Even the smallest details would matter then, wouldn't they? If you don't know which fork to use, you could end up compromising the mission." Naruto nodded, his eyes suddenly excited and eager to learn, and Iruka sighed again, this time from relief.

Hana's eyes never left their table. When Iruka left the table, Hana's eyes followed him then. Determining his purpose and estimating how long he would be gone took only a millisecond for her. She slid into the empty seat next to Naruto, rather than the one across from him that Iruka had used, much to the consternation of her younger brother. He almost called out for her, but for other diners to notice her willingly sitting with Naruto—he decided he would just wait.

Naruto blinked and looked up. Almost before thinking, his mouth issued the very articulate question- "Huh? What are you doing here, sis?" She raised an eyebrow, her lips curving in what could reasonably be called a friendly smile.

She was a Shinobi. Shinobi do not show their emotions.

"Oh, well, I just wanted to ask you how you were enjoying your meal." She responded, her head tilting to the side. Under her penetrating stare, Naruto's wide blue eyes showed confusion but no guilt. She did notice however, that he had stopped his usual squint in favor of a full survey and she took a moment to wonder if he was part Korean—those eyes were almost a dead giveaway. The irony added humor to her smile.

"Yeah, the food's really good." Hana's eyes did not sharpen, though her claw-like nails bit into the flesh of her palm when her hands tensed in a spasmodic, heartbeat-quick reaction.

"Oh?" she asked, her smile never wavering. "So you like it then."

His brow furrowed. "Yeah, didn't I just say that?" Hana leaned forward. It would have been a mistake to say she was not aware of the fact that this move bared the tops of her breasts, just as it would be a mistake to say Naruto did not have difficulty keeping his eyes on hers.

"Do you know…," she whispered, in the way people do when telling secrets, "What kind of meat that is?" Naruto shrugged, the strangeness of the question helping him focus on her face.

"Does it matter? It's all circle of life, isn't it?" far away, at his table, Kiba, reading Naruto's lips, groaned silently and put his head on the table, feeling sorry for the poor little moron.

"That meat actually comes from a dog, can you believe it?" she responded in a shocked whisper.

"Did you know hamburgers come from cows?" Naruto responded, rolling his eyes slightly. "It tastes good." Naruto added with a half-shrug. Hana pulled out a card and a pen and wrote something on it after a moment. Naruto took the time she was writing to ogle her breasts, earning himself a smirk from the girl he had thought would not notice. But she was a chunin and he only an academy student; it would have been a travesty for her not to notice.

"I'd love to have you come down by my place for a meal next Saturday." She told him and ignored his look of surprise, slipping away from the table just before Iruka came back into view. Naruto hurriedly put the card away, feeling somehow like there was a black lining to that silver cloud.

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Kiba had tried to dissuade her, but she was resolute, and, having made her decision, accepted no other. Hana followed Naruto around. Upon seeing the injustice of a woman beating up on him for the honorable grandson's mistake, she smiled. She left off following Naruto for tailing the woman instead, and ambushed her. After an interrogation, she discovered the woman had no close ties, and lead a healthy, active lifestyle. Hana's smile became decidedly canine then.

When Kiba asked what was for dinner, she told him that it was his turn to make dinner—she had gotten the meal for next week.

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Hana whistled as she worked, rather cheerfully, in fact. She had gotten a good- no, an excellent specimen to work with. Of course, no human specimen was perfect for consumption right from the start. Any normal slaughter animal was kept in a tightly controlled environment with its health and diet carefully maintained, while humans roamed free and fairly ruined themselves, often.

But females were not only simpler to work with, they were better tasting and easier to gut, usually, and had less testosterone flavor in them. Hana carried the girl to the butcher house. Each family took turns, and Hana knew even her own family would not interrupt her during her turn. Kiba was a tad squeamish still, and their parents would not enter the butchery when Hana was in it—the sadistic smile she gave sent shivers down their spine when they had first caught her skinning a cow, taking the hide for her purse. Hana penned the girl, and when she awoke, naked, in her cell, she saw the Inuzuka girl smiling down at her.

Hana gave her only liquids.

"You have to be in optimal condition, you see." Hana told the girl, though the girl only drank the water and stayed quiet. She was not a natural victim who made things easier, but Hana had managed to terrify her into submission. "I am going to detoxify you, cleanse your body for the next forty eight hours. The broth should add some flavor. I don't know, I've never made broth before." Hana gave the girl a smile that most nearly approximated apologetic and the girl did /not/ catch the obvious, instead assuming the flavor was for her benefit. While the girl obediently drank the broth- mentally looking for an escape, some way to get away from the girl she thought was crazy- Hana set up some large tubs around a butcher's block and started sharpening her implements. The cleaver was first, followed by a series of knives of varied lengths. She had bought a new hacksaw, so she placed it with the rest in a rust-resistant solution that would sterilize them until she pulled them back out for use, without bothering to sharpen it.

Hana was nothing if not meticulous.

During the wait period, Kiba actually did come to visit, and was surprised to find the naked woman there. Ignoring her pleas for release, he crossed over to his sister.

"No one saw, right?" he murmured. The Inuzuka Clan practiced a not quite secret tradition of eating humans, but their village frowned upon the practice, and anyone caught with a live human in preparation for eating, or kidnapping a person would be heavily fined and jailed. Hana only rolled her eyes at her brother.

"They never catch me, bro, don't worry about it." Kiba did not respond, instead crossing over to the woman. She was somewhat pretty, Kiba mused, in the way that women who diet were somewhat pretty, but not exactly the kind he preferred. Still… he turned to his sister, a silent question in his eyes. Hana glanced up, and then sighed.

"Alright, but only up the ass, you hear me? I don't want to taste you like last time." Hana made a face, and then laughed with her brother as they strapped the woman face down onto the butcher's block. The marble surface was slick with the oil Hana had spread on it, and the girl slid around rather satisfactorily. Her struggles amounted to nothing as they ruthlessly held her down and chained her. Hana picked up a book as she left her brother alone with the captive and up to his own devices. Her lips curved into a real smirk as she heard the woman scream behind her as she began to shut the soundproof doors. Kiba was rather well endowed and would be good exercise for the woman's last few days.

After a while, Hana returned to find her captive on the stone, her body still wracked with the occasional tremor. Hana did not bother to untie her, instead only giving her the broth from right there on the table. She gave herself another forty-eight hours to give the girl broth only, making sure to cleanse her thoroughly. She bathed the girl, and she struggled, but Hana put her into a genjutsu sleep.

When it came time for the butchering, Kiba was nowhere to be found, but it was only as she had expected. She looped the rope around her victim's ankles and lifted her into the air, face down. She completed the truss by throwing the rope over an overhead beam made for this purpose and tying her hands together with the same rope. This spread the legs with the feet spread slightly wider than the distance between her shoulders and her arms just about paralleled. She shaved the girl now of all hair that was not on her head until she was perfectly smooth. Hana repositioned the tubs underneath the girl with a smile and started whistling again as she worked, disproportionately cheerful.

She had gagged the girl that morning, and now she simply took the longest bladed knife she could find and cut the victim's throat. She cut though the carotid arteries and the larynx all at once, whistling as the first bright gush of blood landed in the tub below. She thought of a waterfall as it flowed, and she continued to whistle as she massaged the legs, and then the arms to coax any stagnant blood into the torso area, which she further removed by a rhythmic compress and release of the stomach area. She looked down into the tub, and then dragged it aside, deciding to deal with it later, and pulled another tub close by. She then lowered the body from the truss and laid it upon the slab to be dealt with from there.

It was not as easy as most people thought to sever the head from the body with one blow, so Hana took the circuitous route and continued the cut around the entire neck, slicing entirely through all ligament and muscle, before placing her hands on either side of the head and holding on tightly. It took a minimum of effort to twist free the head, separating it from the spinal cord quickly and easily. She took the head and put it in a cage, smiling lightly and whistling to herself. She thought long and hard about the woman's hide, finally deciding that no; she did not need a new leather purse.

She washed the body again, humming to herself. Taking the shortest bladed knife, she started scoring the surface, jumping not at all when severing a nerve caused the fingers of one hand to curl. She cut under the ribs, and down the ridge of the woman's belly. Using her fingernails, she peeled part of the skin back, and then ran the blade as flat to the skin as possible, cutting away connective tissue. She continued the skinning but left a circle of skin around the anus. Cutting off the hands and feet was the next task, followed by taking the skin usually cleanest, the upper thigh, and cut that into many thin strips, placing them inside a bag and putting the bag aside.

Once all the skin and breast tissue were completely removed, Hana made a cut from the solar plexus almost down to the anus, being very careful not to cut through into the intestines. She kept the knife inside the abdominal wall with the blade facing her, cautiously following the earlier score mark on the skin. She cut around the sphincter and tied it tightly with a hemp weave rope she had made herself.

She continued, opening the lower body with the hacksaw, cutting through the pubic bone. The whistling returned as she worked; she finally cleared out the large and small intestines, kidneys, liver, and stomach, dumping them into the tub. They were slippery and a little hard to grasp, but she managed to do it without bursting any of them or contaminating the surrounding area.

Hana looked at the diaphragm and started thinking, the tip of her pink tongue poking out between her lips as she tried to envision how she would continue. She nodded to herself slightly, and then cut through the diaphragm to view into the thoracic cavity. Hana removed the breastbone next, cutting down to where it met the ribs, sawing though, and detaching it from the collarbone. She then sawed through the ribs on both sides. Hana spared a smile from her now serious countenance when she wondered to herself how long the woman would have survived if she had been alive when the skinning and butchering began. Even being in the top physical form demanded from most ninjas, [and here she spared another smile, thinking of the Kiamichi and Akimichi Clans] she was losing breath with the effort. She finally detached it, placing it aside on the slab and examined the girl's system. The heart was barely bigger than her fist, and the lungs were a strange grayish mass. She pulled them out, cutting into the throat to get to the trachea, esophagus and larynx. She then trimmed out the blood vessels and remaining connective tissue from the interior, washing it thoroughly. She then washed her hands up to the elbow in the sink provided within the butchery. She examined the fat content of the body and found it quite acceptable. The meat would cook beautifully, she thought, watching the marbling effect of fat and muscle.

Now she began the laborious task of actually butchering the carcass for its meat.

She looked at the halved belly and began to cut thin slices from the smooth muscle, like bacon. These slices made their way into a separate bag. The other half of the belly became fillets; the fillets went into another bag.

Hana cut into the armpit and dragged the knife around the joint, severing muscle, tendons, and ligaments around the joint before sharply separating the arm from the torso. She then proceeded to cut into and break apart the joint of the elbow and placed them into a third tub. The other arm soon followed, and a hacksaw divided the ribs in two before they landed into the tub as well. She turned the carcass over with no little amount of effort, and removed the entire backbone, cutting and sawing down both sides from the tailbone to the neck. The spine went into yet another bag.

Moving back into the top quarter, she removed the shoulder blade and collarbone. Taking the simplest route, she cut along the outline, cutting and prying the meat on top away of each.

She began to cut off the calf off at- a yawn was stifled in her shoulder, and she looked out the high window, realizing for the first time that she was working in semi-darkness. Putting the knife down, she washed her hands in the sink again and dried them on the nearby clean towel, before going over and flicking on the light. She let her eyes adjust to the light before returning to her work.

She realized her near mistake quickly, with the return of light, and she began to carve carefully away the whole calf muscle from the back of the lower legs. She then continued on to separate the leg at the bottom of the buttock and de-boned it. She cut it into round slabs, cutting free the buttocks and carving it into workable pieces. Hana smiled again, another real smile at what she had accomplished during the day. Now she had three days to make a seven-course meal that would totally blow the boy's mind.

She started cleaning up, putting the bones into the oven, the intestines into the compost- all except the heart and the liver. Those went into the bag with the thin strips of bacon, which cushioned them quite nicely. She packed everything she wanted to keep wrapped in butcher paper and in bags. She stuck her head out the door and yelled for Kiba.

He helped her carry everything into their house, sidestepping their father's questions and their mother's looks with an ease only found between siblings, against outside forces. Hana always was the one to bring meat home to the house, but she rarely ever butchered anything other than the humans she had captured. Kiba's parents were one of the people who had campaigned against the eating of humans, but unknown to them, their household was the highest in consumption.

If fingers ever were pointed in their direction, Hana considered her parents her best defense. And if their parents did not dissuade the accusations, Hana and Kiba would unite- against their parents.

_It was their fault. We knew it was wrong, but… They made us, you have to understand… we did not want to eat it, they made us…_

Kiba would never tell his sister's secret. He would take this secret to his grave, even if he had to put his parents through hell for it. Hana and Kiba were so closely wound together, sometimes, as they slept in the same bed together, they shared the same dream. They always woke up together, smiling; fingers of her left hand entwined with the fingers of his right hand, their legs tangled together, their foreheads against each other.

They even had their own tree with their names engraved into it. Hana stayed as a chunin to wait for her brother. They shared an obsessive love with each other that nothing could intrude on. Like all siblings, they did not always see eye to eye, but they fought ferociously each to protect the other. And that was never going to change.

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Shikamaru tried to manage a glare in the blonde's direction, but it was ineffective. Shikamaru cursed the gods for sending him this nuisance before rolling over and trying again to go to sleep. This time he was wakened by a punch; a hard one to his side that sent all the air whooshing out of him. He struggled to sit up, sending a glare before he registered a different blonde. Ino.

"Ino, What the-" Ino interrupted him.

"Naruto-kun's got a date. Get up, lazy ass, we /have/ to help him." Shikamaru stared incredulously before getting to his feet.

"Yeah, I'll say you're right this once." Shikamaru shook his head once, hard, to clear it of sleep and stretched, one arm bent over his head, gripping onto the deltoid of the other, straight up in the air and slightly off to the side of his head. Ino yanked on his arm, pulling him along quickly and he nearly stumbled. As Ino headed in the direction of the stores, he and Naruto followed in the wake. Shikamaru barely managed a "troublesome" before Ino had started her instructional babbling.

"Naruto, you have to-" Shikamaru tuned her out, instead putting his focus into watching Naruto's body language and trying to pick out something not _Orange_ for the blonde to wear, in his mind.

Ino kept babbling, and when Naruto started to become overwhelmed by the sheer load of information, Shikamaru took pity and pulled him aside.

"Hana is _not _someone to take at face value. You can't ever act surprised." He said, without an opener, without a preface. "No matter what she tells you, you have to take it in stride. If you look surprised, it's a weakness, and she'll-"

"Shikamaru, don't scare him!" Ino snapped, yanking Naruto back to her side. "You see, Naruto-kun, you have to be a gentleman. Being surprised is just rude, you know?"

"No, I-"

"Rude, shmude- There's more to it than that, Ino. Hana's a chunin and three years his senior. She's unpredictable and-" Shikamaru started, but was cut off again.

"A lovely person, I'm sure." Ino finished. "You'll have to bring her flowers, Naruto-kun, And I'll make you a beautiful bouquet on the house. Oh, this is so exciting!"

"And it'll be exciting when she rips his head from his shoulders too." Shikamaru murmured. Ino punched his shoulder. "Itai- what was that for, you overbearing shrew!"

"Focus! We're here to help the dweeb, not scare him to de- Hey…. Where is he?" Ino looked around the store. "Naruto?"

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Beta's note: I must admit my failings in a work like this one, Lya. I edited what I could, but this story… I am not familiar with autopsy procedures, and in any case, by the time I was halfway through, I was reading for errors and not for content. Please ask your readers, if they manage to read this far to the end, to please check for inconsistencies in that part of the story themselves.

A/n: Well, you heard the man. I did not feel like retyping it, at all, so I just went ahead and put up his note. The above is purely from my memory, so I expect there to be flaws. Please, feedback is appreciated. Also- once again- Go read _The Apocrypha_ please? Read, review? I actually like that story and having no feedback is making me antsy…

-Lyanvis


	2. Tapioca:Vanilla Like Varnish

Hana was a survivor from the era where children as young as four fought in a war that no one could possibly win. Barely, she remembered the tense, taut lines of frustration on her parents' faces. Vividly, she remembered the scent of blood that clung to their clothes and always thinking—I _hate_ wars I _hate_ fighting I _hate_ humans they should _all_ die—about war, and what war really meant.

War meant the death of humans, meant the scent of blood on her parents clothes, and she never truly appreciated the beauty of it until she was forced to protect herself one night. One night she was left alone with Kiba—just a baby have to protect _mustmustmust_ not fail _must_ protect my baby brother _he is so important_ more _important_ than me—and Hana had stabbed the intruder from behind. She had almost died that night, she had only stabbed his thigh, and he was oh-so-very angry. At the time, Hana had five puppies all to herself, and He [the enemy ninja _mustmustmust_ kill _mustmustmust_ eliminate threat] stepped on one and stabbed another before Hana managed to kill him. She was covered in blood from head to toe when it was all over.

Hana never realized that the opponent she fought was barely twice her age, because she never turned on the lights.

She picked up all her puppies and put them all in the crib with her brother. She pushed the crib steadily until it was back against the corner. Her parents found her the next morning in the crib, her back against the far wall, where she could watch all the entrances. She held baby Kiba cradled in her arms. A dead stabbed puppy lay in her lap on top of baby Kiba as she tried to push the intestines back into the dog as if it would bring him back to life. There were no tears on Hana's face, only a calm concentration, as if emotions like sadness never touched her.

They never did. After that blood-soaked day, they never did. Hana never again cried for anything. Not for hunger nor pain or even fear. Fear never even touched Hana. Sadness never came close to affecting Hana. Pain did not exist for Hana. And when Hana was hungry, she would find something to eat. But Hana never let another dog die.

The blood soaked through her brain, wormed its way into her deepest, darkest thoughts and stayed there. It stole her tears and her sadness, replacing it with calm and fierce devotion. Kiba was her baby brother, her love, her friend, her only one. And nothing would ever change that.

* * *

The words '_you are only eleven [ten-nine-eight-seven-six-five]'_ never crossed Hana's lips. The words '_you're too young'_ never even crossed her mind. '_I'll tell you when you're older',_ that parental stand-by, just meant for Kiba, '_go ask your sister'._ So when Kiba asked his parents-

"Why is it wrong to eat humans?" he eventually left and asked his teacher.

Iruka had an answer.

Of course, this answer was not very satisfying either. In fact, he had left the classroom almost more confused than he entered it. So he went home early, skipping lunch and the rest of school to wait for his sister.

Hana had an answer.

Of course, Hana had an answer that was very different from what his parents had said. Their answer—humans have feelings/language/higher thought and are of our own species—did not really make sense to him, as he cuddled his puppy Akamaru. Akamaru was smart, he had feelings and he could talk with him so he had to have higher thought, didn't he?

And almost of course, Hana had an answer that was very different from what Iruka-sensei had said. Iruka had said-

"That's a very valid question, what with all the protests going on around your clan's practices. It is natural to feel confused. What side of the debate are-?" Iruka paused. "Right. Your parents are on the negative side of the debate. Well, the argument is that humans are sentient beings- part of the community that- morally reprehensible-" Kiba had zoned out through most of it, but he had listened for the most important aspect- why it was wrong. And in that, it shared something with Hana's answer. He never said that it was _**wrong.**_And Hana's answer was that it was not wrong.

"It's not wrong, Kiba, _they're_ wrong. US killing humans is just like how they kill dogs to eat. Survival of the fittest applies to everything- including humans. And ninjas are the fittest. Civilians are prey. Enemy ninja are prey." Her lips quirked quickly into the sadistic smile that her parents feared. "And you, my dearest brother-" her finger touched his forehead, between his eyebrows and pushed back lightly, "you are prey too." _But I will teach you to be a predator,_ her smile said, and Kiba took her hand, the one she offered out to him, and followed her, his steps in sync with hers, just as they had been for as long as he could remember.

* * *

Hana finished corking the two wine bottles she had filled with two parts wine to one part blood. Bacon strips sizzled in a pan on the stove, along with eggs in a separate pan. Milk went into a glass and everything was served onto the plate just as Kiba walked in. The omelet just a touch sloppy, and the bacon was so crisp it almost crumbled- Kiba smiled and kissed his sister's cheek as he picked up the plate.

"Good morning, Hana."

"Good morning, Kiba. What are your plans for the day?" Kiba looked up when his mother walked into the room. Both children said a dutiful good morning before Kiba continued. "After class, I'm going to meet up with Shikamaru and Ino. Ino was spazzing about something and you know Shika can't handle her alone." Hana managed to fake a smile for their mother and sat down with her own breakfast, granola and yogurt.

"Well, sounds like a full day then. Hope she is not taking you guys shopping, like last time. You were complaining about how sore your arms were for days afterwards." Hana looked up when their mother left. Realizing that she had forgotten the woman's name gave her a moment's pause. She turned to Kiba. "Ki?" Kiba looked up from his plate, a piece of bacon sticking out of his mouth and part of a red bell pepper stuck on his cheek. Hana chuckled softly and licked the pepper off his cheek and using her thumb to guide the bacon into his mouth. His face reddened a bit and he took a napkin to wipe his mouth.

"Sorry, sis." Hana waved away the apology with a smile, and Kiba returned her smile immediately. But the smile slid away when she asked him a question.

"Kiba-kun, what's mom's name?" Kiba opened his mouth to respond, but paused, a confused look on his face.

"You know…?" Kiba trailed, focusing that confused look on her and blinking- "I can't remember."

* * *

A/N: Well, this is awesome. I know it is a lot shorter than the last chapter, but it's here, at least. I had a bit of trouble getting this story typed down- I got sick, as I was watching my beta and best friend's daughter who was sick as well. I am supposed to be on bed rest, but I cannot sit still. Apparently, my condition was caused by lack of sleep and stress, though how those two little things can cause a fever that went up to a hundred and three before the doctors fixed it or whatever is beyond me. So I am creeping around the house at midnight, working on this while he sleeps. Anyway, I personally think the chapter- particularly the ending- has enough creepy in it to excuse the length. How can children that age forget their own mother's name? It is a symbol of just how distanced Hana and Kiba are from their parents, and I am a little proud of it. Even though this is just the transition chapter, I do like how it ended.

Because I got a few questions emailed to me about this fic, I am going to answer some of them here.

Is there Hana/Kiba in this story? - I am not going to tell you, so quit emailing me and asking me, XDD. I'm just joking. Email me all you want, just don't expect me to say.

That would be telling.

Where/how, did you come up with the skinning and butchering idea? - Part of my psychosis is that I have photographic retentive memory. Most people with photographic memory, it tends to fade after a while, and even trying to 'forcibly retrieve' the memory does not come out as clear as when the memory was first taken. I am not saying my memory is perfect, in fact, just the opposite. I think my mind drops older memories to make room for the newer ones, keeping only essential details. In my freshman year of high school I noticed this, realizing that I remembered nothing before the age of six that wasn't a sort of mental 'snapshot,' if you will, of some important event, though I could remember the events themselves, I never remembered anything else. What does that have to do with anything? Also, that year of high school, my stepfather bought me Victor Perard's anatomy and drawing, as well as the notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci because I fancied myself an artist. The mix of memory from then, and imagination- because I've never seen or heard or gone through the process of butchering an animal myself- from now, allowed me to come up with the process. I also had to tone down the medical terminology a lot, and my beta was a grand help there. At some points, I did not even realize I was using jargon. And no, I have not done it before, do not worry.

Was the girl in the pen the same person as the woman he was following? I was confused by the change in vocabulary. - Yes, the girl caged is the same as the woman Hana followed after she hit Naruto.

What is the honorable grandson's mistake? Is Naruto an honorable grandson? Does the woman have an honorable grandson? Or is this just an expression I'm not familiar with? –In the television series, Naruto teaches Konohamaru, the grandson of the third Hokage, how to perform the sexy no jutsu. While he practices, Konohamaru botches the jutsu and becomes an ugly woman. The woman he was supposed to become beats Naruto for Konohamaru's mistake.

Before the authors note gets to be longer than the story chapter, I am going to say bye, for now, and I hope you enjoyed the story. And, thanks goes out to Angie, who requested this in the first place.


	3. Hearts:Fractured Hearts:Shattered Hearts

Before I start this chapter, all of you have to go and read http:/ www. Fan fiction. Net /s/3043386/1/The_Truth_About_The_Wildness  
.net/s/3043386/1/The_Truth_About_The_Wildness  
NOW.

* * *

Only one person ever saw that Inuzuka Kiba is Hana's strongest protector, loudest supporter, staunchest ally, best friend, and first love.

He is now dead.

* * *

_Standing in the dark bathroom in her bra and panties, her hand to her mouth, she held back her tears, held back the sobs that threatened to come forth. Strange noises came from her, grief unfurling from some dark place inside her almost beyond her ken, noises she had never made before in her memories. And yet, at the same time, her mind was racing. It determined, almost independent of her, that she must immediately get beyond what had happened. She reasoned that he had not threatened her life, had not borne a kunai or any other weapon. Getsugakure was an unfamiliar place. If she left now, where would she go? What would she do? She would fail her mission if she left now, in any case, and she could possibly be stripped of her rank. Most of all, she became instantaneously determined that she would not suffer from this—she would avoid the post-traumatic stress she had seen firsthand as she studied to become a Kunoichi. She would accomplish this by ignoring, by attempting to discard, the few distinct images that had managed, somehow, to make inroads deep in her mind, into memory._

_Her naked feet trod back across the tile. In his bedroom, she pulled back the covers, slid back in bed with him, beside him._

_In the morning, she awoke once again, finally, fully, if groggily, to sunlight: a bedroom painted white, nice furniture, a bookshelf full of jutsu scrolls, blue-striped sheets. And to his face. His green eyes stared across the pillow at hers. He smiled._

_He moved his naked body toward her, pulled her closer to him, and tucked his body into hers. Once again, his hands crept over her. This time, she let him inside her willingly._

_Unprotected, once again, he climaxed. They lay there, side by side. As the room filled with morning light, they talked, enjoyed each other's company. They had sex again._

_Again, he finished inside her. At last, well into the afternoon, they got up and dressed, she in the same clothes from last night, he in a fresh pair of clothing._

_He told her he would like to see her again, and how much he had enjoyed her. To the man she was sure a few hours ago had raped her, the man with whom she was about to embark on a three-month relationship, she said_

_"Me too."_

What ended their relationship was Kiba's teeth through his throat and his fist through the man's chest once Hana finally told him what she believed had happened. And from then on Hana had had no more dates.

Until Naruto.

Understandably, Kiba was a little worried about this turn of events.

You have to forgive him if he wasn't willing to be kind right away.

* * *

By the end of the day, Umino Iruka would have tattooed a note to himself on the inside of his eyelids if he had been able to read it. Never mind that Iruka hated tattoos or that he would not go near a needle to save his life. He would willingly sit still and even watch as they tattooed the inside of his eyeballs so he could read every night, every single time he blinked-

_Field trips are a bad Idea._

The day started out incongruously well. Naruto had not made a fuss on the bus, no one had stuck gum in Ino's hair, Shikamaru stayed awake mostly on his own (Iruka conveniently didn't see Ino pinching him or Shikamaru's subsequent glare), no girl had tried to climb in Sasuke's lap, Kiba had not teased Sakura or Hinata, and all in all, things were going well. Up until lunchtime, that was. That was when the pandemonium started.  
-

* * *

Kiba brought the ice cream over, assisting Iruka in handing them out. By luck of the draw, Iruka had chosen their seating arrangements, and as he looked at his chart, he sighed. At eleven thirty-seven the night before, he'd been sure that putting Sasuke and Naruto together would not affect much. Now, looking at the two of them sitting next to each other, Naruto staring at the Uchiha, his eye twitched slightly.

Kiba sat down next to Hinata, Shino across from her. It wasn't that much different from how they sat in class, Kiba thought, but didn't say. Across the room, he watched Ino and Sakura fighting over some hidden object, and turned to Hinata with a small smirk on his lips.

"Hey, Hinata, what are they fighting over?" Hinata blinked.

"Oh, well, I-I don't-"

"You have Byakugan, don't you?" Shino interrupted. "I'm sure Kiba intended you to use it." Kiba glared slightly at the impassive Aburame, but sighed, smiling slightly when Hinata nodded and decided to do it. After a moment, Hinata flinched and turned off the Byakugan.

"They are fighting over a double mirror compact and a laser pointer." Kiba grinned.

"So, do you ever, y'know… " Kiba smirked at the Hyuuga girl suggestively, "Use the Byakugan to look through anyone's y'kno… clothes?" Hinata had been innocently eating her ice cream, but when the sentence finished, she sputtered, and the contents of her mouth, ice cream, spoon and all splattered onto Shino's forehead. Kiba slapped both hands over his mouth the keep from laughing, while Hinata made a scene of trying to help the stoic Aburame, who ended up only stalking off to the bathroom.

Naruto stared at his silent, brooding bench mate in silence, barely even eating. _Don't you do anything?_ he wanted to yell, but refrained from doing so as the raven simply ate his food and ignored the blatant staring.

Ino aimed the laser into one of the compact mirrors, letting it bounce off the other mirror and hit across the room. Sakura tried to take the compact away with little luck.

"Ino, what are you doing?" Sakura asked, struggling to steal the compact before they both got into trouble.

"I'm going to shine the laser into Sasuke's eye. That way, he'll notice me." Sakura made an indignant noise, supposedly because of the harm it would do to Sasuke, but really because she hadn't thought of it first.

"Oh yeah, then he'll really like you," Sakura said sarcastically, trying again to snatch the compact, surreptiously reaching for the laser as well. She pushed the blonde off course, but only slightly, and both girls froze when a loud, annoying voice said,

"Hey Sasuke, there's something red on your forehead!" Sasuke slanted a look at him out of the corner of his eyes before lifting his head slightly, rolling his eyes up to look in an instinctive way. The red of the laser pointer landed on the tip of his nose, and Naruto burst out laughing, as did Kiba at his table, watching the antics since when Hinata had mentioned it.

Sakura finally managed to steal the compact mirror an instant before it would have hit Sasuke's eye, and as he looked over, she pretended to be engrossed in her food. Sasuke shrugged and looked away, and Ino reached between Sakura's legs to steal the compact back, making the pink haired girl blush. Shikamaru flicked part of a peach off his table annoyed, and saw it land on Sakura's cheek. She wiped it off, it fell with a plop to the table, and she glared back at Shikamaru, who looked back with a bored expression. She wrenched her gaze from him just in time to see Ino's laser hit Naruto's left eye.

Naruto had just lifted the milk carton in front of him to drink when the laser light hit his eye. Naruto paused, put the milk down on the table, then, with much theatrics, yelled,

"MY EYE!" he clapped both hands over the afflicted body part and proceeded to fall off the chair. Sasuke snorted and hmphed. Sakura proceeded to stick the straw from her milk carton into the peach slice that had landed on the table. Ino watched her take aim and throw, hitting the -sleeping- Shikamaru in the ear. He jolted, kicking Choji's chair and causing the peanut butter half of one of Choji's peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to land in Hinata's hair, peanut butter side down. Shino, seeing the whole thing, had opened his mouth to mention this to Hinata, but thought better of it, sitting behind the high collar of his coat with a hidden smile.

Naruto, recovered from his terrible ordeal of temporary partial blindness, picked up his tray and threw it in the garbage, passing behind Hinata just as Iruka did. Iruka lifted a finger and proceeded to try to pick the half sandwich out of Hinata's hair. She whirled around to look at him, and Iruka put both hands behind his back and whistled, for as long as those Byakugan eyes were focused on him. When she turns back around, Iruka finishes picking out the sandwich and gives it to Naruto, with the instruction to throw it away.

Naruto does, simply throwing it over his shoulder. It hit Chouji, coincidentally enough, in the eye. The left eye, in fact, the same eye that Naruto had been howling about on his own body earlier. Choji had no moment of pause, however, as had Naruto with the laser, instead, the rest of his tray splattered over both Shikamaru and Kiba.

Shino had a moment of smacking satisfaction that rang in his ears for the rest of the day.

_Karma will get them every time._

Kiba, very annoyed, proceeded to throw what was left of _his_ lunch at Choji, but missed, hitting Sasuke. Silence reigned, a silence in which Shino thought Kiba must have done something _very_ bad in a past life to have been caught on the receiving end of the murderous look on the lone Uchiha's face. Naruto had quietly managed to sit down in that time, and as food slid down Sasuke's front, he could feel the waves of anger that came from the Uchiha, cooking the food for a second time.

Sakura and Ino hid under their table just before pandemonium broke loose. Sasuke launched at Kiba with a roar, knocking his food over into Naruto's lap before tackling the Inuzuka to the ground.

Instants later, Sasuke was up against a wall. The impending food fight has been stopped by her appearance, this brown-haired girl with murder in her eyes that eclipses even Sasuke's earlier anger. Hana Inuzuka is here, and Iruka just sits back and watches. He knows that one word can have her putting Sasuke down, if he says it in the right way, so he is not worried. He isn't worried much, anyway.

_Her eyes are arctic,_ Sasuke thinks, and his skin prickles with a thousand sharp frost flakes. A fist curled in the thin material of his shirt and he could hear the fabric rip from sharp fingernails. Kiba's eyes widened and he struggled to stand, even though Sasuke's knocked the breath clean out of him. Sasuke recognizes the girl as an Inuzuka, the upside-down triangles on her face a giveaway, even if her similarity to Kiba was not.

"What… do you think you're doing?" Hana's voice is soft, and Iruka does not interfere, though he longs to, he sees the murder in her eyes but stays away. Naruto doesn't, however, his arm latches to hers and gently detangles the fingers and nails free from the fabric, talking all the while. Soft, soft, as to a wild dog or a wolf, and he keeps her- he and Kiba, once he's regained his breath, they keep her- from killing Sasuke. Sasuke's eyes still register fear, he's still pressed against the wall and he slides down to flat feet slowly, never losing that look of terror. [ _because Itachi looked like that, didn't he, Sasuke-kun? Right before the Mangekyou entrapped you, he had such hate in his features, hate as he killed your parents, you could see it in his eyes, just a cold, emotionless you-are-in-my-way-I-do-not-care-if-you-suffer-just-die kind of hatred that could kill a soul and you **remember.** You **remember,** of course, don't you? Because there is no way to forget such evil._ ]

Her eyes are even the same shade of dark—so black that any light made them look silver—as Itachi's, and Sasuke's breath still comes in shallow spurts.

"Hey, hey, sis, it's alright, Sasuke just over-reacted a little, and it was my fault, really." Hana hears Kiba's voice as if from far off. The warmth of Naruto is more immediate, and the warmth of her brother [and she has put a man before Kiba only once before in her thoughts and is not aware she's doing it again] rather than the soothing voices that calm her heartbeat.

"Hey, it's okay, Hana-sama, really, Sasuke just has a short fuse, but he wouldn't _really_ hurt Kiba. He's not like that." Naruto rubs her back with one hand, and Shikamaru's full attention is on the trio, watching the way Hana and Naruto especially, interact. So is Ino's, and yet still, everyone, including Kiba, is surprised when she turns into Naruto and kisses him full on the lips.

Hana's arm is still around Kiba's waist, she's still hugging him half way when her head turns to the side and her other hand cups Naruto's face. Her fingers slide into his hair and undo the back to those stupid goggles he wears. She lets them drop to the ground. Her eyes close for the kiss, a kiss she's not sure, why she's giving to him other than to cool her blood.

His eyes close as though he'd expected it, as though he'd done it before. A hand rests on her face, cold fingertips sending a light shiver [so easily misinterpreted] down her spine. And he kisses like he knows what he's doing, how to do it, and even why she's doing it. It makes Hana tremble to think he might understand [understand as even Kiba does not].

And Kiba's hand clenched into a fist at his side, drawing blood as they kiss, his anger confused and simmering, and he's not even sure why he's angry. [And no one will tell him there's a distinct undercurrent of jealousy in there, will they? Because there isn't any jealousy there. What's there to be jealous of, Hana? He's not jealous of Hana; he doesn't want to kiss Naruto. And it doesn't occur to him that he could be jealous of Naruto. No one is ever jealous of Naruto anyway- that's a stupid idea. _but he is. He is **jealous** of **Naruto** and doesn't know why._ ]

Hana's decided to take Kiba home, and Iruka only nods. He knows he's lucky, and somehow lucky for Naruto to have been there. He knows he won't hear from Tsume over this, since Hana's taken matters into her own hands and is taking Kiba home early, but something's not Right. And he saw the anger in Hana's eyes, and the confusion in Kiba's, but he doesn't see the hatred present in both of their eyes.

Naruto misses the hatred from Kiba also, but only because he's turned away. He understands bonds, and he would understand the jealousy in his eyes. He would understand Kiba's helpless anger; the fact that he feels Naruto is taking Hana away, if he would only turn around. It would take only a look to soothe the hurt, a look Naruto _knows_ how to give, but he doesn't turn, and so he can't give it. And Kiba goes on hating him. And by the time Naruto sees the hate in those eyes, it'll be too late. He won't see the jealousy. He won't see the anger. He'll just see the hate, and he'll shove Kiba on the list of people who hate him for no reason that he knows of.

Hana glanced back at Sasuke, and one word flits through her mind.

_Prey._

The accompanying thought, _he was born to be_ doesn't form, because Naruto's at his side and helping him up like no one else dared. Hana should feel scorn, she thinks, she should feel irritation, but she doesn't. She doesn't even think of Naruto as prey, because only prey helps prey, but she sees him as a predator. Naruto's whole being is primal predator; it's not only Kyuubi within him that makes it so, not only the unnamed monster that no one is allowed to speak of. She feels Kiba's blood against her palm with their linked hands, and she knows that there is now a secret between them once again.

Outside, she hugs him to her fiercely and he returns the hug with as much force as he can muster, thinking only one word, with no accompanying thoughts. The word has always applied to his sister, but only for him, damnit, and no one else could call his sister….

_Mine._

The thought blazes a path deep into Kiba's subconscious and touches something feral and primal, and he feels like he will never let go. He doesn't know how she knew to be there, but he knows that she always will be, just like- Kiba squeezed his eyes tight/shut- just as he will never fail her again.

Kiba's never really let that guilt go, you see.

And he's never admitted to himself how he feels about other men around his sister.

He feels….

But that would be telling.

* * *

A/N: Okay, not my fault this is out so late. My beta was being an ass about this whole thing. I was sick for a while and he refused to give it back until I slept, and then my internet went out for a while, and oh, I'm going to cry.

I love this chapter. Serious, humorous, and back to serious, you know. I like all of Matches Burn Twice, so far, but if you think I can improve, don't hesitate to tell me so. I'm not frail.

I hope to finish matches before January, but if not, then I will get back to it in March/April. I have so much to do and so little time- how dare he make me sleep? That jerk actually forced Tylenol PM's down my throat and tied me to the bed. Can you believe the nerve of him? But since I'm staying at his house, I guess I do have to abide by his rules.

For now.

Grrrr. It is Monday, December 01, 2008, and I still have no internet. This chapter has been done for almost a week now.


	4. ShardsWreathsTalons

I own only the contents of the story, not the characters.

* * *

_**Shards/Wreaths-Talons**_

Sleep was fitful and left much to be desired. Even the comforting presence of her brother could not relax her. Realizing the futility of the attempt, she crawled out of the bed without waking him at two forty-seven that morning. It was better to get a head start anyway, as she knew the cooking would be an affair to last the entire day. Her body sore and stiff from the previous day's exertion, she rolled her shoulders and sighed. Her mind flickered back to the frightened academy student, and to the feel of rough, calloused hands working her hands free _and it didn't feel like prying, somehow… more like convincing her_ and the voice that chilled and heated her blood both at the same time. She was beginning to be confused by him, by her reactions to him. He was an enigma to her, and a question she wasn't sure she could answer even to her brother, much less to herself, was starting to formulate behind the busy work. How would he react? And could she live with herself if he reacted badly?

Fingertips on the base of her spine startled her not at all, nor did the subsequent bite to the jugular vein that was unavoidable without ruining the food. She let the gnawing go on for a few moments while she moved the pot away from the heat and turned the stove off. Her fingers wove into deep brown hair and she jerked quickly around, slamming her assailant into the stove. Fingers wrapping around his wrists, she held his hands against the far wall as he sucked in his chest to keep bare skin from pressing onto the burner that still glowed red from the flames. His eyes closed and he put on a real smile.

"C'mon, sissy, I was just playing around." He turned his head to offer her a smile. She smiled back, running the sharpest edge of a kunai over the wickerwork pattern of scars that adorned his back. She added a new one, slicing from his third rib on the left side of his spine to the sixth rib under his arm. His eyes rolled back into his head and he shuddered a little, struggling to keep his breath level and not move. She watched the way the blood fell for a few moments, admiring the ribbon of red. Hana finally let go of Kiba's wrists and he pulled away from the stove in relief. She was already cleaning the blood from his back, and the iodine stung like a bitch, but he was used to it. After she was done, his fingers kneaded the stress from her back as she slumped over the counter.

"How long have you been up, Hana?"

"I have been up since about four-thirty this morning." She responded, incorrectly calculating the time by looking at the clock. Kiba started in on the dishes without being asked, smiling at his sister. She finished as much of the meal as she could beforehand, and then made them breakfast.

They took a bath next, taking turns washing each other, splashing, playing, and generally making a mess. The hot water steamed around them as they played games together, Slick, wet games they both enjoyed. Hana tilted her head back to allow Kiba to run his fingers through her hair. He washed her hair for her now, working through her scalp and detangling all knots. He smiled as she propped herself on the edge of the tub and watched him dry himself off. She stood up when he was done, and held her arms out. He took a blue towel and dried her arms for her, and then knelt as she put her hand on his shoulder and dried her left foot, calf, and then thigh as she held still for him. He continued to dry her off until he was working on her hair, and she moved to sit on a stool and allow him to continue. He fixed her hair for her as well, before she lifted her face to allow him to paint the clan's tattoo markings on her face. An intricate, delicate process took a steady hand, and an unmoving canvas. Most of the others simply tattooed the markings on, but that was the path of Laziness, and it made missions of deceit much more difficult. She would only allow Kiba's hands on her face anyway, and as he could not use the tattoo gun, she wouldn't get it done at all.

* * *

Sakura and Ino were possibly the most annoying females on the earth, Shikamaru had commented earlier, and Naruto had to agree, as he tuned out Ino's chatter about colors and cuts of fabric. Not that he would ever need the information, or that it would ever do him any good. On the other hand, even if he were interested, he wouldn't be able to follow along with it. Before this day, Naruto never thought he could have gotten sick of Sakura's sweet voice, or that he could get tired just by walking around. But after being dragged around to twelve different stores, going back to six of them, and carrying stuff that Sakura and Ino wanted, while trying on clothes for himself that not a single one was 'just right'.

"Geez guys, I think I already tried this outfit!" Naruto whined, putting on what felt like the thirty-millionth outfit that hour. It actually had only been the twenty-fifth, but Naruto had a bent for exaggeration and a whiny streak a continent wide.

"No you didn't. You tried on those pieces separately. Now we want you to try them on together." Shikamaru said, with a bored look on his face.

Said streak was making itself known, but amidst the opposition from the others, he was sorely outclassed. The end of Sakura's fists had met several parts of his body today and he was still limping, so when her fisted hands made their way onto her hips, he sighed in defeat and wandered into the dressing room to change. He wasn't just re-thinking his crush on her, he was chucking it out of the window. He was no longer sure why he had ever liked her in the first place! He was sick of Shikamaru and Ino's arguing, and he just wanted to run out of the place and never look back. So he did. Instead of putting the outfit on, he climbed up over the edge and tried to escape. A hectic, adrenaline-fueled four minutes later, Sakura held the front of his pants. She wrinkled her nose at the state of his boxers, and Naruto's face reddened. He stopped trying to run away.

Exactly one hundred and forty-six outfits tried, and they finally found the right one. He took his bag and skedaddled, wincing when Ino called after him.

"I'll see you in the morning!"

* * *

A/N: Lovely lovely. I know it's short. i'll do my best to make the next chapter longer, but i was finally inspired today to _do something_. So I just had to take advantage and get this done. Love love love makes the world go round, right? I have no beta anymore, so any mistakes are mine. At least it's over a thousand words this time, haha.


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